Faculty Governance News

The Office of Faculty Governance publishes Faculty Governance News monthly. Send information to be considered for inclusion to Anne Whisnant on Monday before an issue is scheduled to appear. For immediate news, “Like” our page on Facebook or “Follow Us” on Twitter (@UNCFacGov).

Faculty Council & General Faculty to meet Friday, April 12; new time: 2pm

Friday, April 12 brings the final Faculty Council meeting of the 2012-13 academic year; as is our tradition, this meeting is also a meeting of the General Faculty, and all faculty members are especially encouraged to attend. Due to events related to a special Board of Governors meeting this Friday, we have moved the Faculty Council meeting time one hour earlier, to 2:00 pm. As usual, the meeting will be in the Hitchcock Room at the Stone Center.

The agenda and all materials are now online here. Highlights of Friday’s meeting include saying farewell to Chancellor Thorp and Provost Carney, discussing the annual reports of the Committee on the Status of Women and the Committee on Fixed-Term Faculty, voting on four resolutions, and considering proposals for reform of the Honor System.

Faculty Elections 2013 are next week (April 15-22)!

The 2013 Faculty Elections will be conducted by electronic survey next week. All members of the Voting Faculty will receive their individualized, unique ballot by email early Monday morning, April 15th. Voters will have until midnight on Monday, April 22 to cast ballots, and results will be announced on April 26th. This year’s full Voter Information Guide, with short statements from nearly all of the candidates, is now online. If you believe you are eligible to vote and do not receive a ballot on Monday morning, please contact Anne Whisnant in our office (anne_whisnant@unc.edu).

Faculty invited to contribute to Habitat for Humanity house in honor of Thorps

This spring, the UNC Habitat for Humanity chapter is building a home for a local family in honor of Patti and Holden Thorp. The Thorps have been strong advocates and facilitators for Habitat in the Chapel Hill community. The chapter wishes to recognize their outstanding service and positive impact and invites you to support this endeavor. The cost to sponsor this house is $20,000. Your contribution will buy nails, paint, wood, or shingles for a family actively pursuing a brighter future, a place to call home. If you would like to join in this expression of appreciation and support of the Thorps, please send a check to:

UNC Habitat for Humanity
FPG Union, Box 38
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Or go to http://www.heraldsun.com/news/localnews/x609281914/UNC-Habitat-Club-raises-money-pounds-nails to donate online. Your donation is tax deductible under the University of North Carolina tax exemption code of 56-6001393. The UNC Habitat for Humanity Chapter will recognize you personally for your donation. All donors will be recognized in a special book presented to the Thorps at the house dedication, and will be featured on a sponsorship banner at our spring Blitz Build.

Forum on the role of athletics at Carolina to be held April 19

Carolina will convene a panel of distinguished leaders in higher education and athletics on April 19 to consider the role of athletics in the life of Carolina. The idea of a panel originated in a report produced in 2012 by a Faculty Executive Committee. Full details on the forum may be found here.

The panel will meet from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Carolina Inn, Hill Ballroom South.

The panel chair is Hunter Rawlings, president of the Association of American Universities. He will be joined by James Delany, a UNC alumnus who was commissioner of the Big Ten Conference and a former NCAA enforcement officer; Bob Malekoff, associate professor and sport studies chair at Guilford College and a former athletics director and head coach who has written about athletics and sports management at the collegiate and professional levels; Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics; and Patricia Timmons-Goodson, former associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and a UNC alumna. The event will also feature a roundtable with five other speakers: Jay Bilas from ESPN, Bubba Cunningham (UNC’s athletics director), Joy Renner (chair of UNC’s Faculty Athletics Committee), Jay Smith (Professor of History), and Richard Southall (Associate Professor of Sport Administration, director of College Sport Research Institute).

Commencement weekend events: how to participate

Commencement Weekend 2013 is coming up! Faculty are invited to be involved. Full information is coming online at http://commencement.unc.edu/. Key things you need to know: Saturday, May 11th is the Ph.D. hooding ceremony, and commencement is Sunday, May 12th. Faculty are invited to participate in both events — either with or without regalia.

The Doctoral Hooding ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 11, at 10 a.m. in the Dean Smith Center. The featured speaker will be Dr. Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dr. Ariely received his master’s degree and doctorate in cognitive psychology from Carolina. His research has transformed our understanding of human decision-making. During the ceremony, each graduate will be called to the stage to receive the doctoral hood from his or her advisor.

Non-hooding faculty members who wish to march in the academic processional should arrive at the Smith Center (entrance D) no later than 9:30 a.m. and congregate in the Press Room on the lower level (take elevators or stairs down to the first floor). Marshals will direct you to the line-up site. Read more information about the hooding ceremony here. Parking will be available in all the lots around the Smith Center.

University Commencement is on Sunday, May 12 at 9:30 a.m. in Kenan Stadium, where it will be held rain or shine. If it rains during the ceremony, the ceremony may be shortened; in the event of dangerous severe weather, it will be cancelled. This year’s speaker is Steve Case, co-founder of American Online. Faculty participating in the processional should park in the new Bell Tower deck and gather on the second floor of the Kenan Football Center at 9:00 a.m. From there, Faculty Marshal Valerie Ashby will lead the faculty processional.